Pitching and chipping are some of the most crucial skills to learn in the game of golf. It takes the great feel and touch to be able to deliver consistent and accurate approach shots to the green. But what do you do if you are struggling around the green? Do you need to spend hours and hours practicing the fundamentals or can a set of wedges improve your skills?
What are the best wedges for beginning golfers? The most forgiving and easy to use wedges on the market are the Cleveland CBX wedges. Offering a large sweet spot and bounce for consistency, Cleveland’s CBX wedges help golfers gain more confidence around the green when chipping or pitching.
CBX Benefits
Many beginning golfers use player improvement iron sets and not player improvement wedges. (They use blade style wedges.) This is why a lot of beginning golfers struggle around the green when chipping. They just aren’t used to feel and heavier weight of the blade wedges. To know if you are using blade wedges, look at the back of your wedge. If the back is flat and there are no cavities or indentations, you are using a tour style wedge. (blade)
Not that there is anything wrong for beginners using blade style wedges. My point is that golfers are not going to receive the forgiveness and consistency they are looking for when they use cavity back irons and not cavity back wedges.
- Here is a quick video from Mark Crossfield where he reviews the CBX wedge and talks about the benifits of the wedge
CBX Cavity Back
The benefit of the CBX wedge from Cleveland Golf is that it has a cavity back which helps even out the weight of the clubface so that golfers can achieve more forgiveness even if they miss the center of the clubface. Most wedges have most of the weight behind the heel of the club to allow more versatility and clubface control. The CBX wedge design moves this weight more towards the toe of the club to enable the golfer to more consistent shots off of the clubface without losing a lot of spin on mishits. This is huge for beginning golfers when all they want to gain confidence around the green!
V Sole
CBX wedges come with a V Sole design which helps cut through the ground and adds to the forgiveness of the club. In simple terms, this means that the bottom of the wedge has a somewhat “V” appearance which aids in reducing the friction a golfer receives when making a pitch or chip shot with a wedge.
Bounce
Perhaps one of the best features of the CBX wedges is that they have larger bounce angels than traditional blade wedges. Many beginning golfers hit behind the ball when making a pitch or chip shot. The larger bounce angle of the CBX wedges will help golfers make better contact even if they hit behind the golf ball. Pretty cool!
In simple terms, the bounce angle of the club is the angle at which the leading edge of the wedge is either lifted or lowered. If a wedge has a high bounce angle, the leading edge will be raised slightly at address (larger width sole) while a wedge with a lower bounce angle will have its leading edge closer to the ground (small width sole).
Appearance
If you are like me, you probably don’t like the look of huge, clunky looking clubheads when looking down at your club. Don’t worry! The CBX still looks great at address, mimicking the appearance of a blade style wedge while giving golfers the added forgiveness of a player improvement club.
It is the best of both worlds and is a perfect addition to the bag of anyone looking for better results around the greens.
Price Point
Now the part that everyone wants to know, how much are they? Compared to other top name brands, the CBX wedges are very affordable.
Final Thoughts and Who Needs these Wedges
The Cleveland CBX wedges are a game changer for beginning golfers wanting the look and feel of a blade style wedge while needing the forgiveness of a player improvement club. These wedges blend smoothly with other player improvement iron sets and come in a lot of different loft options so you can close out any distance gaps.
Cleveland has always made great wedges, and I am pleased that they have targeted beginning golfers with their CBX design. As I mentioned earlier, a lot of golfers don’t even realize that they are playing wedges that aren’t suited to their skill level. We all want divers that give us the most forgiveness and distance, why not think the same way when it comes to the short game where you can save even more strokes! …
Just my two cents. Thanks for reading and happy golfing ⛳️